RES 5535: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (summer 2010)

I think that you ar right in saying that family and community are an intrigal part of a child's schooling. I have worked at a low SES school before and we had events at least once or twice a month to get parents and community involved. I think that this helped break some of those negative barriers you mentioned that the parents may have encountered when they were in school. I found it easier to talk with parents in the less formal setting and the kids really thought it was neat to star gaze (for example, when we had the astronomy club out) or ride bikes (my safety patrol put on a bike rodeo and checked the safety of bikes with the fire department) with their teacher. It also cut down on discipline issues because there was more of a respectful bond made.
Amy Reep

Sally, I, too come from the majority and have wondered what it would be like to be on the minority side of things. I can't imagine. It's so hard to put yourself in someone else's shoes. I think there are feelings you and I could probably never imagine having that are experinced by those children. It's so interesting that you wanted to teach on an Indian reservation. I know so little of that culture. What I know I basically learned at Cherokee when I was growing up. My dad was part Cherokee and loved to take us there but never really taught us much of the culture. He felt a strong connection but didn't share it with us. It was just a cool tourist trap to us kids.This article has been eye opening for me.Wonder how we could experience the feeling of being the outsider as far as race is concerned?

I think it is great that you wanted to teach on an Indian reservation. I'm sure you would have experienced the same feelings Daniel and Zonnie were feeling in the article. I agree that family and community are a very important part of school and education. Students need to feel supported in all areas, and all areas need to intersect and support each other.

Sally,

Being in the majority, I think it would be hard to experience and understand what people in the minority cultures experience. I think we could develop some idea of what it's like to be in the shoes of someone of a different culture, but we will never truly know what that is like. Daniel and Zonnie did close themselves off from their teachers and peers at school. It could have been because of their culture, but what if being reserved was just part of their personality? I am very shy, and never really "talked" to my teachers about anything but classwork. I didn't feel comfortable opening up and felt perfectly happy keeping my feelings inside. I agree that Daniel and Zonnie's teachers needed to find out about their culture and other interests. However, the teachers could only find out about what the two students were willing to share.
~Jamie Brackett

Family and community are an integral part of a child's education. We have been doing more to get our parents and community involved in events in our school. We have parent nights in which the students perform and there are informal sessions for the parents on literacy and math skills. It is very difficult to get our parents involved. They see coming to the school as negative. We are beginning to bridge the gap by making the parent nights non threatening to them. We have a local elementary school that has tremendous parent involvement and the school is really thriving because of it. They are doing things right to keep parents and the community involved.

Sally,

I had to comment on what you said about wondering what it was like to be an "outsider" in the midst of another culture.

If you've read any of my other posts, you know I have mentioned that I am gay. Before I came out, I constantly felt like an outsider because I never felt I could ever truly be comfortable expressing myself around others. While I am a white male and could therefore "pass" as being part of the majority, I was, in fact, a minority in another way due to my sexual orientation. Monitoring my words and actions were draining, to say the least, and it just added another layer of stress. I didn't want to be discovered to be an "outsider" by those who considered me to be part of the majority. For some "outsiders," the option of "passing" as a member of the majority is not open to them.

In 2004, I went to China to visit my sister who was teaching English there. My sister is a blonde so I thought most of the stares I saw when we were riding on the subway were directed at her, not me. When she had to work, however, and I would be out on my own, I noticed that I received my fair share of extended looks as well, even though I have dark hair. While I did see several Caucasian people while I was there, we were definitely in the minority. This is not to say that I was made to feel uncomfortable by the staring, but it was noticeable. Many Chinese people, especially younger ones, would come up to me on the street and want to speak English with me, just for the practice. It was a pleasant experience and I would at least try to say something in Mandarin in introduction or in departure as a sign of goodwill. One experience that stands out in my mind, however, that was not a good one was when I was walking in a park and I encountered a park employee walking on the sidewalk. I said, "Ni hao" (hello) to her and she responded, "Lo wei." I had not heard this expression before so I asked my sister about it when I saw her again because I wanted to know what the park employee had said. Perhaps it was a new word I could learn instead of just using "Ni hao." My sister told me that the word meant "foreigner." That incident has stuck with me because of how it made me feel like an "outsider," someone who was not welcome.

Lastly, on the same trip to China, I visited the Great Wall at a place called Badaling. I was on a day tour and I met another American guy who was by himself on the tour. We climbed a section of the wall together and we reached a point where we could go no further. At this point, there was a Chinese man trying to peddle some items for souvenirs. I arrived at the man before the other guy and the Chinese man greeted me with a hearty hello and began to show me what he had to sell. I told him I wasn't interested. The other guy I was climbing with showed up a couple of minutes later and the Chinese man again said, "Hello." The American guy looked at him and said, "No hablo ingles" (I don't speak English). The Chinese man, not to be deterred, responded with "Hola." Evidently, he knew greetings in several languages in order to make "outsiders" feel welcome. Even though neither of us bought anything from him, we did appreciate his efforts!

Clyde Rice

I agree that bridging the gap between home, school, and community is much harder than it seems. I believe it is very important that we continue to try because only this will tear down some of the walls the gap is causing.
As I was reading the research I also could not understand how the reading teacher didn’t know what Zonnie like to read or the fact that she had not tried to encourage her to expand her reading experiences beyond Horror. What’s up with that? Nothing against horror but she could have suggested other authors who provided reading with vivid details and compelling plots that may have increased Zonnie’s desire to read more. I think the problem here was despite the connection Zonnie felt to her reading teacher, the teacher did not really know her well enough to know what to suggest and that is sad.
As teachers we cannot afford to let students sit unnoticed in our classes. We must do our best to reach out to all of them as an important part of our learning environment with a part to play.

A child's school experience can heavily rely on their culture. So true with your point! When students attend school, are the educators very similar to themself? Are they able to identify with the characters in the literature they are reading? Culture should have a strong impact on the school experience.

We have worked diligently at our school as well to bridge the gap for our students. I work at a school that is close to 50% Hispanic and we really want the parents and children to be comfortable at our school at all times. It is the little changes that I think are most appreciated by the parents. We made sure that we had a PTO that was made up of both English and Spanish speakers; we have incorporated traditional Hispanic foods and music into school wide events. I feel blessed to work within such a rich culture and I am proud of the parents and staff that work so that we are a united school family.